|
This month let us take a look at Ray St-Onge and his X-cell
60. Modelers who have been to fun flies will most likely have
seen or heard of Ray St-Onge, he is probably one of the top five
3-D pilots in the US. Ray was one of ten pilots invited to an
expense paid IAM (International Air Meet) invitational RC helicopter
3-D contest in Japan in October 1999. Ray placed 6th in this
top notch duel. Ray could have done better, but unfortunately
in the last ten years since I have known Ray, he always get nervous
in front of judges. He gets nervous and actually starts to sweat.
However, when there are no judges, Ray does his best flying in
FAI and 3-D. He can fly in front of ten thousands spectators
at the International RC Pageant in Japan or at the IRCHA Jamboree
without problem, but when there are judges, he become tense.
By the way, I highly recommend ordering a copy of the VHS video
tape of the IAM 3-D contest. It is over one hour long and you
will see ten of the world best 3-D pilots duke it out in compulsory
and freestyle 3-D. The tape is under $28 from Heliproz.
Ray has been flying RC helicopters for 16 years. He started
out as a rep. for Schluter flying the Scout 60-size helicopter.
Ray was one of the first people started to do freestyle 3-D.
He was right up there in time with Curtis Youngblood. Then, for
a short time, at around 1990, Ray became a rep for GMP flying
the GMP Legend elite. I have seen Ray flown the heavy 10+ pound
Scout and the lighter weight Legend (9.5 pound), and he could
make both dance in the air like there was no gravity. About eight
years ago, after Robbe Schluter pulled out of the US, Ray joined
the Miniature Aircraft team and has been flying the X-cell 60.
Ray does not believe in 30-size model for doing serious 3-D,
he currently flies the Xcell 60 Graphite SE #1004. Ray does not
make too many changes to his Xcell 60. Everything he changes
is available off the shelf from the hobby shop. We will go over
some of his setup and changes.
Ray uses a M/A CNC machined metal cooling fan. He recommends
you Hi-point the fan (both plastic and metal fan) to make sure
it is balanced. Then dial indicate it for trueness. Ray also
recommends using the Futaba GV-1 rotorspeed governor. The fan
needs to be balanced after the magnets are glued onto the fan.
(By the way, Ray is also a rep for Futaba.) Ray thinks the stock
YS61 ST II is a lot more powerful than the older YS 61 ST I,
and the ST II has more torque than the OS 61 SX in the stock
form. But Ray has raised the exhaust port timing on the OS 61
SX making it as powerful or slightly more than the YS 61 ST II.
The procedure is very simple, he simple cut away the piston sleeve
so the top of the exhaust port becomes flush with the engine
crankcase opening. This must be done with the piston sleeve removed
from the engine and then debur the cut afterward. Ray has been
doing this on his OS 61 SFNs for over a decade.
Ray does not use carbon graphite tail booms, even though they
look prettier and may be slightly lighter. Ray prefers to use
aluminum tail boom because he believes they are more rigid and
allow his (now discontinued) Futaba GY-501 gyro to lock on better
in aggressive 3-D maneuvers. He cut down the carbon graphite
horizontal fin because it provides very little use for 3-D flying.
He highly recommends the new metal tail rotor gearbox and
the gold tail pitch control system on the new 2000 version MA
Graphite SE. This tail gearbox is very impressive and has practically
zero freeplay. The price is very reasonable at under $150 for
the complete unit. I also agree this is one of the best tail
gearboxes and tail pitch control units in the world. (Yes, HeliProz
stocks these parts).
Ray has his own Bell-Hiller mixing arm setup geometry on the
main rotor head. He rotates the mixing arms inside out, then
added a long ball stud. Just study the pictures and you can copy
what he did. This set up has no Delta 3, look at where his Bell-Hiller
arms pivoting point is. The benefit is it allows the pushrods
to run straight to the swashplate without binding against the
seesaw. Ray also does not place the two L-arms for the flybar
at the same level. He cocks them at an angle. The reason is to
prevent the L-arm from hitting the bottom of the blade grips
at full cyclic input. He crashed his helicopter at the 1994 Gauntlet
contest in Pennsylvania because the binding popped the ball link
off the L-arm. This change is only needed for extremely aggressive
3-D flying.
Ray recommends the new molded black (30 grams) or white (20
grams) Hiller control paddles from Miniature Aircraft. He uses
the white one for 3-D and recommends the black paddles for smoother
FAI style flying. These molded plastic paddles are very inexpensive
at around $10 each. He likes them even more than the SAB carbon
graphite paddles from MA. (the SAB carbon paddles look prettier,
but cost five times more.) As you can see, Ray believes in performance,
and not showy look.
We both like the new constant drive autorotation hub introduced
by MA in 1999. This bulletproof hub is very smooth and has very
little friction. The other recommend item is the one piece CNC
machine top bearing block for the 10 mm main rotor shaft bearing.
As shown in the picture this unit has a slot cut out in the center
and the rear portion is the anti-rotation arm for the swashplate.
The benefit of this design is the elevator control yoke and swing-arm
will not bind against the bearing block in full positive collective
and full forward cyclic command. Again, it is a well made unit
that is standard on the SE but is an option for the Competition
Trainer and the Sport Trainer.
I have been flying my MA Competition Trainer (slightly over
$800). It is a great value for the money because it has almost
all the features of the $1000+, Graphite SE, but not the fancy
looking carbon parts nor the super tail gearbox. In terms of
performance, the Competition Trainer will do all the 3-D maneuvers
that one can demand. The CT even includes the $150 constant drive
tail rotor system. The CT weighs about 10 pounds and the Graphite
SE is a tad under 10 pounds.
Ray's use to love the MA Rotorsport 690 mm 3-D white carbon
blades, but nowadays his blade of choice is the MA SAB symmetrical
airfoil 680 mm white 3-D blades. He says the SAB gives even better
autos and crisper controls in 3-D. Ray used to participate in
FAI contests and was in the top ten in the US, but nowadays he
just enjoy flying for fun and he spends considerable time helping
people. Anyone who has questions on 3-D or engine or setup can
flag him down at fun flies and will find him very helpful. Ray
even taught the Chen brothers of California how to do 3-D. If
you have seen Justin and Taylor Chen fly, then you know they
have learned a lot. Ray's best recommendation is go burn more
fuel. Ray burned 280 gallons of fuel last year. This year he
burned less because he is also doing skysurfing (that's water
skiing with the feet standing on a water ski podium above the
water). Order a copy of the very well produced IAM 3-D contest
tape and you will see Ray and the world best in action.
|